A New Leaf: Rockland PD Series, #3

By T. E. Killian

Lieutenant Fay Kincaid has plenty on her plate with being commander of the Rockland PD Support Division which included two of the most prestigious units there, SWAT and the Bomb Squad as well as CSU, SRO and Dispatch. Not only that, but she is the single mother of a six-year-old daughter, Ashley, who thinks she's an adult.

Fay is certainly not looking for a man in her life, especially not the handsome doctor some call Dr. Kildare behind his back. He has the reputation for being the worst kind of playboy and Fay wants nothing to do with him.

Wayne Holland hasn't realized it yet but he's getting tired of the playboy lifestyle and needs to put some stability in his life.

First, his Aunt Esther who raised him comes to live with him. Then he starts to see Fay Kincaid as other than the cop he always argues with about whether his patients should be handcuffed or not.

Many things happen to keep bringing Fay and Wayne together not to mention that Ashley loves him on sight.

Finally, they face a life-or-death situation together. How will they both come out of it. Will this bring them together or push them farther apart?

• Language: English
• Publisher: CCM
• Release date: Aug 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223992066

Book preview

Chapter One

Dr. Wayne Holland wasn’t drunk. No, he was stone cold sober. So, if that was the case, then why was he sneaking out of some woman’s apartment at three on a Sunday morning? Yeah, what was his excuse this time?

As he wracked his brain, he couldn’t come up with a single valid answer. Why was he where he was right then, on his only night off for six more days?

In situations like this, Wayne always took the stairs, even if the apartment was on the sixth floor, the way this one had been.

As he was going out the stairway door into the lobby, a man in his mid-thirties wearing a suit was waiting for the elevator.

The man turned to Wayne. Who are you? I’ve never seen you in this building before.

That was when Wayne realized that the woman he’d been with might have been married. Wow! It sure was a good thing he’d left when he had.

Wayne thought fast. I don’t live here. I was visiting my cousin Jim on the second floor.

The guy kept giving Wayne a dirty look and was about to say something else when the elevator door opened, and he reluctantly stepped inside.

Okay. He’d dodged the bullet this time. But that was the third time this year, Wayne had narrowly missed being caught. He’d have to start doing things differently. But how could he be positive that the woman wasn’t married?

He was still trying to figure out all that stuff when he slid into his Mercedes S Class sports coupe. As he almost always did, Wayne leaned his head back against the headrest and just admired the luxurious interior and dashboard of his pride and joy. He could easily say that he loved that car more than any woman he’d ever known. But he had to consider that his house came up there almost even with his car in his affections.

Yeah, he loved everything about his house too. He’d had it custom-built to his exact specifications or pleasures was more appropriate.

The drive up into the foothills of the mountains north of Rockland, Arizona was always a pleasure for Wayne too, especially at night. Even or especially at three o’clock on a Sunday morning. He loved taking the curves a little too fast, thrilled with how the car hugged those curves like no other car he’d ever driven. Wow!

As soon as Wayne stepped into his home from the garage, he smiled yet again as he walked through his gourmet kitchen, which was one of the four rooms he spent the most time in.

But right then, his favorite room was the one with his California King bed in it. He needed to crash right then. He’d barely made it home. His eyes kept wanting to close on him.

He paused at the edge of the bed and didn’t even take the time to undress but fell into the bed and was asleep by the time his head hit the pillow.

When Wayne woke up, he felt amazingly rested. He raised his head and looked at his bedside clock. What? Had he slept until nine p.m.? He couldn’t have slept for over twenty hours, could he? His windows were all covered with blackout curtains, so that was no help.

Then he looked closer at the clock and discovered that it was nine a.m. not p.m. Okay then, if that was the case and he’d only slept for less than six hours, why did he feel so rested?

The answer hit him quickly when he slid out of bed and began making his way toward the bathroom. His head didn’t hurt, and his stomach didn’t feel queasy because he didn’t have a hangover. That was why he felt so good. Yeah!

As he thought back to the previous evening, he remembered that he’d only had one drink before the woman he’d met at a party almost dragged him home with her. Man! It wasn’t supposed to be that easy. He liked to have a little more of a challenge than that. It was just too easy. If that guy at the elevator had actually been her husband, Wayne knew why she’d been in a rush.

He snorted. Why was he complaining? Most guys would gladly trade places with him. He had all the women he ever wanted, usually a different one every night he was off from work.

Work! That reminded him of the latest complaint his supervisor at the hospital ER had thrown his way Friday night. Dr. Elizabeth Osborn was the devil incarnate. She was forever hounding Wayne about something that he forgot to do or something he did she didn’t think he should have done.

The woman was going to be the end of him yet. His only consolation was that she worked a strict day schedule Monday through Friday. And since she had him working the night shift, and always on weekends, he didn’t have to be around her very often. But when he was, she made up for it.

Of course, the dragon lady was often still there when he went on at five p.m. but thankfully not when he got off at five a.m. the next day. So, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

Her latest attack on Wayne had been when he’d gone on duty Friday at five. He discovered that his usual schedule had been changed for the next week. One of the other doctors was off for a death in the family. And as she usually did, Osborn scheduled Wayne to take two of his nights without even asking Wayne.

One of these days, that woman was going to push him too far. Ha! He didn’t know exactly what he could do, but there had to be something to get her to back off, at least for a little while. He desperately wanted to quit and go into private practice, but he had found no one he wanted to do that with yet.

After a leisurely fifteen minutes in the jacuzzi in his master bath, Wayne was ready to scratch up something to eat. Ah, one of Wayne’s most pleasurable things to do was to spend a little time in his gourmet kitchen. He loved to cook. It was one of his few passions in life. Cooking for one never bothered him because he always made a full recipe of whatever he was making. He would take the leftovers to the homeless shelter downtown every day on his way to the hospital.

As he had in his car early that morning, Wayne stopped just inside his kitchen and looked around at another pride and joy. It was twenty-five feet square, with counters and shelves along all four walls and two room-width counter islands. One island contained the sink and dishwasher.

It had a wall mounted unit complete with microwave, convection oven and two regular ovens. The range had six burners with a large grill in the middle. And, of course, he had an assortment of small kitchen appliances to make everything go so much smoother when he cooked.

The first thing he did, though, was to turn on his coffeemaker. And of course, it wasn’t just any coffeemaker. In his opinion, his Pasquini Livia G4 coffeemaker was the best in the world. Wayne never had taken a liking to any of that frilly coffee that was the rage anymore. No. He liked his coffee black and strong, but it had to be super flavorful as well. He even took a large thermos of it with him to work every night.

He spent the next few minutes gathering all he needed to make an omelet until his coffee was ready. Then he took his coffee and sat in his kitchen nook, which was basically the same as a four-person booth in a restaurant.

After breakfast, Wayne went to the back of his house where his exercise room was. After an hour on various machines, he headed back to his bedroom for a shower.

Finally ready for a new day, Wayne looked at his watch and decided that eleven o’clock was a bit too early for lunch or since it was Sunday dinner. So, he went into his game room to play a few games on his two pinball machines.

Hopefully, after two hours in there, he would finally be ready to go out to his favorite restaurant for Sunday dinner. For a place like Rockland, four hundred miles from the ocean, The Sea Dipper Restaurant served the best fresh seafood. He already knew what he wanted today. Their seafood platter was the best. It had oysters both on the half shell and fried, large fried clams, jumbo shrimp, both broiled and fried, and a sea bass filet that was broiled in butter. His mouth was watering just thinking about it.

But the next question he had to answer was who would he grace with his presence for dinner today? Jill, Samantha, Shelly or even Brenda. He’d decide a little later. After all, he didn’t want the one he chose to be able to plan too far ahead, now did he?

When he got around to calling someone, he went through his normal routine. He pulled a name out of a bowl that had the names of about a dozen women written on small, folded pieces of paper. He would stir up the papers and draw one, and she would be the lucky one to be with him that day or night.

It only took two phone calls before he found one who was available, and of course more than willing to spend time with Wayne.

* * *

Ashley! Don’t you remember that it’s Sunday? You need to get up and get dressed so we won’t be late for church.

As Fay Kincaid had known it would, just the mention of church brought her daughter out of bed in a rush. Fay hid her smile as she helped Ashley pick out what she wanted to wear to church.

Of course, Ashley thought now that she’d just turned six two weeks ago, she was old enough to pick out her own clothes. But Fay was trying to stay ahead of her by gently nudging the little girl into making the right choices as far as matching color and style of clothes.

Soon, they were in the kitchen enjoying their weekly pancake breakfast that had been a tradition since before Jerry died four years ago. Even though Ashley had only been two at the time, Fay had kept up the tradition and now Ashely reminded her every Saturday night at bedtime.

Fay sat back and took a good look at her little girl. She remembered her dad was always saying that Ashley was a pint-sized replica of Fay. She had to admit that except for one minor difference, that was true. Ashley’s hair was a brighter shade of red than Fay’s.

Are we going out to eat with Mia and Ken today, Mommy?

Fay almost agreed, then she thought. No, not today, Honey. Ken is away at a conference in Los Angeles. But Mia will be there, though.

Yea! I love Mia. She’s so pretty, and she’s a real live policewoman too. Just like you, Mommy.

Fay didn’t let Ashley watch any of the cop shows on TV because she thought they were too violent among other things. The shows had much more of those things than real life, and she should know. But somehow, probably through her friends, Ashley seemed to know about all the shows, anyway. At least Ashley wasn’t watching them, she hoped.

Soon, they were walking into church and even though Fay tried to keep up with Ashley once they were inside, she had to follow along far behind the eager little girl as she power walked down the hallway toward her Sunday School class. Fay laughed at the little girl’s creativity. At least Ashley remembered to walk, for what it was worth.

Fay laughed to herself. She’d stayed away from church for a couple of years after Jerry died because she’d been angry with God for letting him die. She’d only been back in church a short time and now she was going all the way with Sunday School too.

It surprised Fay that her best friend and fellow police lieutenant, Mia Correa, had also started going to Sunday School about the same time. Of course, Mia said it was because of her fiancé, Ken Anderson. Ken had grown up in church but had not accepted the Lord until just a couple of months ago. And now, he wanted to learn all he could, so they’d all started going to Sunday School and best of all, Ashley loved it.

Once she made sure Ashley was in class and her teacher had taken her in, Fay headed for her own class, where Mia sat waiting for her.

Fay knew that she and Mia made an odd pair. Mia was Hispanic with a light, almost olive complexion, dark eyes, and long, beautiful black hair. Fay, on the other hand, was a pale, complected redhead. Even though Mia was an inch taller than Fay at five nine, she had a figure that always drew every male in her vicinity. Not so with Fay, whose figure was more like a pencil, making her look the taller of the two.

But they had been best friends ever since Mia came onto the force. In fact, Fay had been Mia’s Field Training Officer or FTO. Their friendship had started then.

Mia seemed to be slightly excited about something, so Fay quickly sat next to her and waited.

Oh, Fay, I’ve just got to tell you I had to go into the ER last night and Dr. Holland didn’t even look at me once.

Fay gave her a questioning look before she caught the slight upward curve of Mia’s mouth.

Ha! That’s probably because he wasn’t working last night. Right?

Mia laughed. Right. And it was great to be able to move around in there without having to look over my shoulder all the time to make sure that perv wasn’t sneaking up behind me.

Fay didn’t laugh long. She just shook her head. I can’t believe he’s still bothering you even though everyone there at the ER knows you’re engaged to the Charge Nurse’s brother.

Yeah. In fact, Rachel was telling me last night that Dr. Holland hits on all the married women, too.

Fay shook her head. I can’t believe that guy. I wonder why he suddenly started going by Wayne instead of Jerry.

Mia smiled. Rachel said she heard Dr. Holland telling Dr. Osborn that since he was the third, his grandpa went by Jerry and his dad always went by their middle name, Wayne. But when his dad died last month, Dr. Holland decided he wanted to be called Wayne now.

Oh. I guess that explains it all right.

After Sunday School, they went by Ashley’s classroom to take her to children’s church, which was in another part of the building.

As they were walking toward the sanctuary afterward, Fay turned to Mia. When is Ken getting back from LA? Didn’t Bob go with Ken and Angela?

Yes, their plane lands at four this afternoon and they all rode to the airport with Angela, so she’ll be taking them to her house where Ken and Bob left their cars.

Angela Parker was the County Attorney and Ken’s boss. Bob Coleman was Ken’s lifelong best friend. They were both Assistant County Attorneys.

Fay thought for a second. It sure is good that Ken’s mom has stayed on until the wedding.

Mia nodded. Yeah. Not only that, but she’s going to move into my apartment and stay there at least until the end of the lease in March.

Fay was so glad that ever since she’d made sergeant almost three years ago, she’d been mostly on weekdays except for call outs. And now that she was the lieutenant in charge of the Support Division, she was strictly on days with fewer call outs. For those times when she got called out, her next-door neighbor, seventy-year-old widow, Mrs. Zalenski, was always eager to take Ashley in no matter what time of the day or night.

After the service was over, Fay picked Ashley up from Children’s Church and when they made it back to the foyer, Mia was still standing there as though waiting for them.

Mia stepped up to meet them. Fay, if I know Ken, after three days in LA, all he’s going to want to do is go home and crash for the night.

Fay knew what Mia wanted, so she saved her from having to answer. Okay, Mia. Ashley and I are going to The Sea Dipper …

Ashley interrupted. Oh, Mia. Come with us, please. I’m having the Kiddie Shrimp.

Yes, Mia. why don’t you come with us?

Sure. She leaned down to Ashley. But is it okay if I have a grownup meal, Ashley?

Ashley seemed to think about it for a moment, then nodded her head vigorously. I guess so, since you are a grownup.

They all laughed as they went out into the parking lot.

Fay liked The Sea Dipper for two reasons. First, and most important, was that Ashley loved their Kiddie Meal, which the little girl called Kiddie Fish or Kiddie Shrimp, depending on which one she chose. Another reason was that it basically had two adult menus. One was an affordable one with fish and seafood on it. The other one was the much more expensive one, with combinations and lobster as well.

As soon as they were seated at their table, Fay looked around and let out a groan when she saw Dr. Holland with another one of his beautiful women sitting at a table close to them. This one was a blond.

Mia, don’t look now, but three tables over on your right is Dr. Holland with another one of his women.

Mia snorted. Let’s see, the last time we saw him, he was with a brunette. This one has to be a blond.

You’re right about that.

Fay didn’t realize that Ashley had been listening to their conversation and was now staring over at the couple in question.

Mommy, isn’t that the mean man you don’t like?

Uh oh! What could she say to that? She looked at Mia for help, and her friend smiled.

You see, Ashley, it’s not that he’s a mean man. He just does things that your mom and I don’t like.

Ashley scrunched up her face. Oh, I see. Like Bobby Miller, who is always bothering us girls.

Fay sent a look of thanks Mia’s way. That’s it exactly Ashley. He’s always bothering us women.

Oh!

* * *

When Wayne reported for his shift at the Rockland Community Hospital ER at five that afternoon, he was one satisfied man. He’d had a great dinner with a beautiful woman and spent some time with her afterward at her apartment before he went home to get ready for work.

Now, he was more than ready for his shift to begin, especially because he knew Dr. Osborn would probably not be there on a Sunday.

As he passed the nurses’ station, he overheard two nurses talking about the new doctor. Well, just like everyone else, he’d known they were getting a new ER doctor today, but Dr. Osborn had stubbornly refused to tell anyone who it might be.

One nurse was talking, and Wayne heard just enough to whet his appetite.

Yeah, I heard she knows Dr. Holland from Med School, too.

Now, Wayne was really wondering just who that could be. He’d known quite a few people in Med School. But the nurse had said she. Okay, who could that be?

Then it hit him like a ton of bricks. No. It couldn’t be. Not Vicky Gibson.

The moment Wayne entered the break room to store his coffee thermos, he saw a blond woman wearing a white lab coat standing with her back to him. She was talking to Rachel Anderson, the charge nurse.

Wayne would know that figure anywhere. The lab coat couldn’t hide it nor could tying up that shiny blond hair hide it. Yes, it was Vicky Gibson, all right. Then he had to wonder if that was going to be good for him or bad. He quickly racked his brain for how they had parted almost ten years ago when he’d graduated, and she still had another year to go.

He finally remembered that they had mutually agreed to go their separate ways when he wound up doing his residency in Phoenix and as far as he’d known, she’d stayed back in Little Rock for hers a year later.

So, how did she wind up out here?

The two women turned at the sound Wayne made when he set his thermos on the table near the staff coffeemaker.

There he is now, Doctor Gibson.

Wayne almost laughed. From the look in Vicky’s eyes, she certainly didn’t need Rachel to point him out. Then he quickly tried to analyze that look she was giving him. Well, thankfully, it wasn’t one with even a little bit of anger in it. But what was it?

Just as he stepped over to the two women, Wayne recognized that look. It was one of hunger. Uh oh. Here we go again. But then the look changed. Was that a possessive look she was now giving him? No way!

Jerry! I’ve so looked forward to seeing you again and especially working with you, too. You look absolutely great, my dear.

He’d always hated it when she called him that. It sounded like what an old married woman would call her husband, not someone who had known Wayne as well or better than anyone ever had. And that was what had him actually sweating right then.

He didn’t want to think of some of the things she knew about him. She could really sink his boat here, especially with Dr. Osborn already on his case for every little thing. The old hag would love to have more ammunition to use against him.

He stuck out his hand. It’s good to see you after all these years, Vicky.

She brushed his hand aside and wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly before releasing him and stepping back. Well, at least she didn’t kiss him. But he could tell from the look in her eye that if Rachel hadn’t been there, she would have laid one on him for sure.

You’re our new doctor?

Okay, admittedly, that sounded mighty lame. But he couldn’t think of anything else to say. At least he was no longer speechless.

The big question right now was, did he really want Vicky back in his life? Now wasn’t really a good time for him. His first thought was no. He had things going just the way he wanted them, with a whole list of women to call on whenever he needed companionship. He remembered all too well that Vicky had wanted him all to herself back in Med School and he didn’t see any indication that she would be any different now that they were both doctors.

Just then, Rachel stepped around them. Well, I’ll leave you two to get reacquainted. I need to get out there and get everyone going in the right direction for this shift.

As soon as the door closed behind Rachel,